If this is your first visit, be sure to
check out the FAQ by clicking the
link above. You may have to register
before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages,
select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

Re: Why is the odfrank challenge closed?

So we have a tie at this point, nice going odfrank!

Tomorrow I'm returning the same bait box to my son's as he must be in some kind of hotspot. I got the swarm moved into his garage wall last year, then the one last week at the same wall spot, then on Sunday a swarm flew right over him in his driveway. I also put out 2 more at new locations, my friend's backyard, and in yard #2 of my apiary.

The colony from last week--I moved to my apiary and into a deep this morning and they had drawn out all 4 frames, had brood, and were very gentle. I forgot my smoker and it was not a problem.

Re: Why is the odfrank challenge closed?

Gypsi, if you were to put out honey on a pan would you get any foragers? What a bummer about the pesticides.
I constantly get foragers looking for cappings and clean up items as I do this every extraction. But they don't like my bait hives

Re: Why is the odfrank challenge closed?

Re: Why is the odfrank challenge closed?

#3 was not baited, but a pineapple size swarm in a camellia bush referred by the local nursery. I got a new bait site and a honey sale out of it also. Best yet I pass it every day on my commute. More rain more melancholy.

Re: Why is the odfrank challenge closed?

I'm sure OD will win. He has been e-mailing me telling me how many traps he has set around my poor Mother-in Laws bee yard. I keep telling him my Mother-in Law is 81 years old and loves her bees. She new at beekeeping and she does her best to keep her broodnest open from her wheelchair but some days are better than others for her. What a shame.

Re: Why is the odfrank challenge closed?

I didn't know that she is in a wheelchair. Being handicapped myself, I am going immediately and pick up any baits within 20 miles of her house. I feel terrible now and apologize for taking advantage of a handicapped old lady.

Re: Why is the odfrank challenge closed?

In the long run odfrank is going to win,,,BUT,,,today I got my third swarm. I sent pic via phone to my facebook, maybe I can figure out how to post here. It's the bait nuk in my back yard, on 5' ladder under tree where I've had swarms before.

I saw scouts there this morning, I'd put out a cardboard nuk box, no frames but had honey in it as I brought orange blossom honey frames home yesterday. That drew them this morning, and at the same time I saw them going into hive. At about 12 when I was getting ready to leave, they were gone. When I got home a couple hrs later I noticed alot more bees around my house but I figured they were looking for more feed from my extracting. Not long after that I went outside to get something and low and behold, the front of the hive and some bearding down the front, which is still going on now. I have the entrance reduced to about an inch so it will take awhile. I will probably let them clean up these newly extracted frames. I pulled 13 frames in all. Now I will leave them alone for a few months--only wanted to get some straight (or almost) orange blossom honey. Last year something funky happened with orange blossoming and my bees, got very little.

I got so excited about the swarm I called over my neighbor who I barely know to show him. Thank goodness he wasn't afraid of bees. He congratulated me.

Re: Why is the odfrank challenge closed?

One in the bee tree, one in the nuc (I suspect one is from my cutout hive, but don't know.) Cutout hive is 3 medium boxes pretty full, I just gave them a deep to encourage them to move down and draw comb, cutout A robbed out cutout B today, or someone did, and there are a ton more bees in the 3 box cutout. Got bees guarding the nuc (with no food supplied) and others guarding the bee tree entrance. At least two swarms? I'm happy

Gypsi

Stuck in Texas. Learning Permaculture in drought, guess I will teach permaculture in drought. The bees are still alive.

Re: Why is the odfrank challenge closed?

I may have an unfair advantage with all my swarmy africanized bees, but I'm now at 21 swarms since about the beginning of February.

I checked one site at the edge of town on Saturday--three traps and three swarms. On Sunday I went to check another site north of town--again three traps and three swarms. I recently caught three swarms on the same weekend right in my back yard. One of the swarms moved into a trap hive I just happened to have sitting on the ground next to the back door.

Just about every box I'm hanging is getting filled. I only have six empty ones hanging at the moment. They should also get filled, expecially since I will have bees swarming until the middle of May. April is one of the better months. Unfortunatly, I'm running out of equipment. That might put a damper on things. But I also have a 12 day vacation coming up due to Easter so that will give me time to fix that problem.

The odd part is that I've only had one person tell me about a swarm in a tree. I usually get several of those every year.

Just to show a bit of proof, here's a photo of five of them sitting in my backyard. Just about everything I have is in top bar hives so the design of my trap hives is the same. Everything looks brown in the photo because it's the dry season in my part of Honduras--and I mean really dry. I need to be extra carefull with using the smoker in the bee yards.

Re: Why is the odfrank challenge closed?

Wow Tomas,

That's incredible. How hot are your africanized bees? Judging by the number of stingers in your glove, I would say they're pretty hot. I'm going to be in Guatemala in July. I may need to pay a site visit!

Re: Why is the odfrank challenge closed?

Intheswamp....I would set a trap on it, not near it, and get two to four colonies from the tree during this year, and more in years to come. Swarm traps nearby, are hit and miss. Trap set on the tree is guaranteed.